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Aaron Yoon, convicted and jailed in Mauritania for terrorism ties, has — contrary to his claim in a recent broadcast interview — been visited behind bars by Canadian consular officials, the Star has learned.

Yoon’s claim to the CBC that he has languished for nearly two years in jail with no assistance from the Canadian government is “false, completely false,” said a source with detailed knowledge of the case.

The young man has received nine visits from Canadian officials during a period spanning more than a year, the source said.

The RCMP would not say whether it has interviewed Yoon. But the London, Ont. man has apparently had consular assistance from foreign affairs officers, who typically help Canadian detainees get access to independent legal advice and aim to ensure they are not mistreated in custody.

Yoon’s brother, who lives in London, told the Star that said Yoon called him Saturday morning from the prison he is in, but wouldn’t go into specifics of the conversation.

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The brother, who wouldn’t give his name when contacted by the Star, said the family hasn’t been contacted by the Canadian officials providing assistance to Yoon in jail.

In fact, all they know about the government’s involvement is what they heard in the CBC broadcast.

“I don’t know the full details of that, and we’d like to know,” he said. “We hope to see him come home as soon as possible.”

The federal government would not provide any details about Yoon’s specific case.

“Canadian officials continue to provide assistance to the individual as they
would for any Canadian detained abroad
. This assistance should not be construed as a belief of his guilt or innocence,” said a spokesman for Diane Ablonczy, the minister responsible for consular affairs.

When approached by Amnesty researcher Gaetan Mootoo, he asked him to keep details of his case confidential. Mootoo said he was aware Yoon had been seen by Canadian officials.

However, in a cellphone interview with the CBC Friday, Yoon told the reporter he has been in prison for “almost two years” and hadn’t received “any help from the Canadian government.”

“I have been wrongfully accused. I’ve been beat up and tortured. I’m still sick and I still don’t see any medical attention yet,” he said.

He said he was embarrassed to tell his family in Canada of his situation.

Mootoo told the Star on Saturday that Yoon needs to be careful about having access to a cellphone in the prison, considering the track record of prisoner abuse and torture inside Mauritanian prisons.

“There are rules in the prison, and I think in Canada you can’t have a cellphone,” he said from Paris. “This is where they need to be careful.”

Yoon told Mootoo that he arrived in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, in May 2011 to learn Arabic and was arrested in December 2011, Mootoo told the Star last week.

Mootoo first met the Korean-Canadian among several other terrorism suspects detained at Nouakchott Civil Prison about six or seven months later, in the summer of 2012.

Yoon, who spoke to Mootoo in English, said he was unclear at that time what charges he was facing, but Mootoo said he has since learned Yoon was publicly tried on terrorism-related charges and sentenced to two years in prison.

Canadian government officials will reveal little about Yoon’s whereabouts or legal status, citing privacy laws.

Mootoo said Yoon is serving his sentence in the same prison that houses other prisoners convicted of ties to Al Qaeda.

Conditions at the civil prison meet the norms seen in other African prisons, he said, and are not the “horrible” conditions that the Amnesty campaigner has seen at some terrorist detention centres.

The RCMP confirmed Thursday that Yoon’s high school friends Medlej and Katsiroubas died in January’s deadly hostage-taking at an Algerian gas plant.

Police are leaving open the possibility another Canadian may be among the as yet unidentified remains of Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists who died when Algerian special forces stormed the gas plant.

Note - April 8, 2013:
This article was edited from a previous version that made iincorrect reference to the religion of prisoners. The Star's policy regarding religious references states that no reference should be made to a person's race, colour or religion unless it is pertinent to the story.

Note - April 12, 2013:
The above correction note was edited to clarify a previous version that incorrectly stated the religious reference was part of a source's quote.

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